In 1998, Wei Dai published a description of "b-money", an anonymous, distributed electronic cash system. Shortly thereafter, Nick Szabo created "Bit Gold". Like bitcoin and other crypto-currencies that would follow it, Bit Gold was an electronic currency system which required users to complete a proof of work function with solutions being cryptographically put together and published. A currency system based on a reusable proof of work was later created Hal Finney who followed the work of Dai and Szabo.
The first decentralized crypto-currency, bitcoin, was created in 2009 by pseudonymous developer Satoshi Nakamoto. It used SHA-256, a cryptographic hash function, as its proof-of-work scheme. In April 2011, Name-coin was created as an attempt at forming a decentralized DNS, which would make internet censorship very difficult. Soon after, in October 2011, Lite-coin was released. It was the first successful cryptocurrency to use script as its hash function instead of SHA-256. Another notable crypto-currency, Peer-coin was the first to use a proof-of-work/proof-of-stake hybrid. Many other crypto-currencies have been created though few have been successful, as they have brought little in the way of technical innovation. On 6 August 2014, the UK announced its Treasury had been commissioned to do a study of crypto-currencies, and what role, if any, they can play in the UK economy. The study was also to report on whether regulation should be considered.
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